Middle East in review
Middle East in Review is a monthly gallery that features some of the top photojournalism made by AP staff photographers and freelancers based in AP’s Middle East, Afghanistan & Pakistan region.
In this month’s selection, Middle East Regional Photo Editor Maya Alleruzzo shares some of February’s highlights.
In Syria, a self-proclaimed caliphate that once stretched over large areas of Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State group’s territory has been reduced to a tiny speck of land in the village of Baghouz, where a few hundred IS militants are holed up with family members and other civilians who are among the group’s most determined supporters, many of whom traveled to Syria from all over the world.
Women and children ride in the back of a truck that is part of a convoy evacuating hundreds out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants in Baghouz, eastern Syria, Feb. 20, 2019. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
In Iran, at least 27 people were killed in a suicide car bombing that targeted members of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard.
In Iraq, rapper Ahmed Chayeb, who goes by the name Mr. Guti, recorded on his own computer at home about anger and disillusionment in his hometown, Basra, which saw riots last summer over failing services and soaring unemployment.
In Egypt, a fight between two train conductors unleashed a speeding, unmanned locomotive that slammed into a barrier and exploded in the Egyptian capital’s main train station Wednesday, killing at least 25 people, authorities said.
Railway officials said the single railcar collided head-on with the buffer stop, causing a huge explosion and fire. The deadly blaze blasted through people on the platform in the busy Ramses Station in downtown Cairo. A surveillance video showed the moment of impact when the car barreled past men and women walking by and engulfed them in flames and smoke.
Policemen stand guard in front of a damaged train inside Ramsis train station in Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
In Pakistan, blistering cross-border attacks across the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir that continued for days, even as the two nuclear-armed neighbors sought to defuse their most serious confrontation in two decades.
Tens of thousands of Indian and Pakistani soldiers face off along the Kashmir boundary known as the Line of Control, in one of the world’s most volatile regions.
Tensions have been running high since Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday carrying out what India called a pre-emptive strike against militants blamed for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops. Pakistan retaliated, shooting down two Indian aircraft Wednesday and capturing a pilot.
Curated by Middle East Regional Photo Editor Maya Alleruzzo
